When too much Photoshop work is a bad thing

Published on April 21, 2014

There's no shortage of pop stars involved in recent Photoshop controversies. Lady Gaga received a wave of criticism after photos of the starlet's untouched Versace ads surfaced, and now two more female singers are at the center of unwanted attention surrounding image editing.

Beyoncé's legs get unwanted attention
Pop diva Beyoncé is not afraid to show off her curves, whether she's dancing on stage or posting a selfie to Instagram. While the singer is known for her fuller frame, one of her most recent uploads to the image-sharing site garnered a great deal of criticism. The picture shows her standing on a golf course hunched over a golf ball holding a putter and sporting an unnaturally large gap between her legs. The image appears to have been doctored to make the space between her legs appear much larger than it normally is, an alteration that becomes apparent after the viewer notices the unnatural curvature added to the inside of her leg. Nearly 7,000 of the star's 11 million Instagram followers have participated in the online debate, some abhorring her decision to use the application while others have expressed their support.

Kylie Minogue receives fan backlash over Vogue cover
Beyoncé's legs aren't the only ones to see criticism from the public. Australian singer Kylie Minogue recently graced the cover of Vogue Australia, but a number of vocal fans have stepped forward and called the company out on over-altering the image. According to The Mirror, fans called out the poor Photoshop work done to the star's legs, as well as her face and skin.

When used properly, Photoshop is an invaluable tool for adjusting and editing images. Without proper training, edits become over exaggerated and unnatural. If you'd like to learn hot to correctly use Photoshop, consider enrolling in Photoshop training courses taught by American Graphics Institute to create professional looking images without the controversy.

About the author

Jennifer Smith is a user experience designer, educator and author based in Boston. She has worked in the field of user experience design for more than 15 years.She has designed websites, ecommerce sites, apps, and embedded systems. Jennifer designs solutions for mobile, desktop, and iOT devices.

Jennifer delivers UX training and UX consulting for large Fortune 100 companies, small start-ups, and independent software vendors.She has served as a Designer in Residence at Microsoft, assisting third-party app developers to improve their design solutions and create successful user experiences. She has been hired by Adobe and Microsoft to deliver training workshops to their staff, and has traveled to Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and across the U.S. to deliver courses and assist on UX design projects. She has extensive knowledge of modern UX Design, and worked closely with major tech companies to create educational material and deliver UX workshops to key partners globally. Jennifer works with a wide range of prototyping tools including XD, Sketch, Balsamiq, Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blend for Visual Studio. She also works extensively in the fields of presentation design and visual design.

Jennifer is also the author of more than 20 books on design tools and processes, including Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies, Adobe Creative Cloud Digital Classroom, and Photoshop Digital Classroom. She has been awarded a Microsoft MVP three times for her work with user experience design in creating apps for touch, desktop, and mobile devices. Jennifer holds the CPUX-F certification from the User Experience Qualification Board and assists others in attaining this designation in leading a UX certification course at American Graphics Institute. She is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Human Factors in Information Design.